Just a Movie
by HecateA
Summary: Hazel loved movies, and she remembers that Mr. Disney made some good ones—but she wasn't prepared for what happened in that buffalo gorge. Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **NA

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**Stacked with: **MC4A; Shipping War; Animal Verses; Seriously Important (Not); Tasty Yandras

**Individual Challenge(s): **Wise Seaweed; Brush; Summer Vacation; Seeds; Mountain Dwellers (Y); Old Shoes; Advice from the Mug; Ethnic & Present; True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); Themes and Things A (Reflection); Themes and Things B (Loss); Real Family; In a Flash

**Representation(s): NA**

**Bonus challenge(s):** Ntaiv; Bast's Blessing; Second Verse (Pear-Shaped); Chorus (Nontraditional)

**Tertiary bonus challenge: NA**

**List (Prompt): **Service Prompt (Compassion)

**Word Count: **663

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_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang (Shifting Stones)

**List (Prompt): **Summer Big List (Laughing)

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**Just a Movie **

Frank had always wanted to go to New York City. Mom had promised to take him to celebrate his sixteenth birthday but they hadn't quite gotten there. Still; he was enjoying his time at Camp Half-Blood now. It was supposed to be a diplomatic trip, of course, but Reyna had been feeling lenient in her scheduling which had given them time off to explore the city with Percy acting as an able and enthusiastic tour guide.

He and Annabeth were sitting under a particularly large pine tree and she was showing him some of the battlefield simulation projectors that the Athena cabin had been developing.

They had just synchronized the four tablets that made up the technological infrastructure of their system when Percy, Nico, Hazel, and Jason shadow-traveled back to Camp.

"Hey," Annabeth said. "I thought you were all going to sleep over in the city…"

"Cousin bonding time is ruined," Nico said.

He dropped Percy's hand in disgust and left.

"I'm gonna go find Piper," Jason mumbled under his breath before wandering off too.

"I made a mistake," Percy said. "A… bad mistake…"

"Why, what happened? Hazel, are you okay?" Frank said.

Hazel pursed her lip and shook her heads before bursting into tears. Percy looked even more distressed.

"Hey," Frank said, getting up and opening his arms. "Hey, come here, come here… I've got you. What's wrong?"

"Mufasa dies," Hazel sobbed into his chest.

"Pardon?" Frank asked again.

"Percy said we were going to watch a movie but then Mufasa died," Hazel repeated.

Frank looked over his head towards Percy.

"I am literally the only one of the cousins to have had a somewhat normal childhood set in this century," Percy said. "I was just going to catch everyone up on movies."

"We watched _The Lion King," _Hazel sobbed into his chest.

"They're all mad at me," Percy whispered.

"Simba was _watching _and he thought it was all his fault but he's just a baby," Hazel cried.

"Oh gods," Annabeth said. She picked up the four tablets they'd been pouring over and nodded in Frank's direction. "We'll circle back to this, Zhang. Come on Seaweed Brain, you've done enough."

"It's a good movie," Percy said, following Annabeth down Half-Blood Hill.

"Yes, but if you were going to show it you had to be prepared for Hazel to cry…" Annabeth argued back as they walked off.

Once they were far off enough, Frank rested his chin on Hazel's mane of curls.

"Are you okay?" Frank asked.

"It was really sad," Hazel said.

"I know," he said. "I remember."

"It's silly," Hazel said. "Mufasa isn't real, it's just a movie."

"Don't worry about that. Movies are supposed to be like that and make you feel things," Frank said.

"I know, but it just feels silly to cry for a lion that someone drew after everything that's happened this summer," Hazel said. "And just… in our lives."

Frank chewed his lip and tightened his grip around Hazel.

"Yeah," Frank said. "You know what though; if anything that should give us license to feel things however we want them, real or not real."

Hazel looked up and nodded.

"Yeah," Hazel said quietly. She wiped her eyes. "I'm the only one who cried."

"Did you not see Nico's face?" Frank said. "That's the closest thing to an openly expressed emotion I've ever seen."

Hazel cracked a smile.

"Are there any other really sad movies I should know about though?" Hazel asked. "I really got blindsided that time, the talking animals were supposed to be fun."

"There's a bunch," Frank admitted. "Do you know about _Titanic?" _

"The boat sinking? That happened before I was born," Hazel said.

"Okay, but Céline Dion wasn't there before you were born so that's different," Frank said. Hazel laughed and he took her hand.

"Let's focus on happy for now, okay?" he said.

"Okay," she said. She wrapped her arm around his and leaned her head against him. "You're good at that."

"Hakuna Matata," he said.

"What?"

"You didn't get that far in the movie, I guess," he said. "I'll tell you later."


End file.
